Protection from Arrows vs the Musket

[Dark Dragon]

Re: Cow Damage

Technically, no, it should be just the falling damage, assuming you're hit by the cow on the falling part of its trajectory (a perfect arc, ideally). All the kinetic energy transferred into the cow by the catapult would be spent in getting the cow up to its maximum vertical height. Gravitic acceleration then causes the cow to fall toward point of impact.
So yeah, just falling damage.

Wait...
No, not only, because the cow still has a forward momentum (from the catapult!), so there must be some kinetic energy added to the potential energy (which would be simple falling damage).
Ok, anyone good in physics here?

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Re: Cow Damage

Of course, if you're hit by the cow on its way up in the air (while riding a flying hippopotamus, say) the amount of damage would be determined by cow velocity and weight. The velocity would be a function of the catapult's power and firing angle, and the time since firing. This could be calculated, but it's pretty long-winded, not to mention pointless. An interesting fact, however, is that it would actually hurt less to be hit by the cow going up.

Sorry, but there are no arcs for missile weapons in D&D. They all go in a straight line. Arrow at 1000 feet? Straight line. Boulder thrown by stone giant at 500 feet? Straight line. Cow launched by catapult? Straight line.

 

[Someone]

A good way to manage it would be calculate the energy transferred from the catapult to the cow and adjust it by the difference in height betwwen you and the catapult; the higher you are, the more kinetic energy converted into potential energy. That´s for the vertical part of the movement. For the horizontal, you have to calculate the air resistance.

Now, suppose a spherical cow...

 

[Dark Dragon]

For the horizontal, you have to calculate the air resistance.

Now, suppose a spherical cow...

Possible, because the cow's mass will be densed during acceleration (and the legs can be neglected cause of low mass). The cow will be accelerated with 33g (assuming a catapult spoon with a length of 4 m and a moving angle of 50°). The cow's proportions would become, hmmm, closer to something spheroidical. A friend calculated, that the cow would have a lift off speed of 180 km/h, assumed a mass of 400 kg, a standard heavy D&D catapult (max. range 2000 ft, using a stone of 50 cm diameter with a density of 2.7 g/cm^3...ok, the stone is quite large... anyway...), g (Faerun) was assumed to be 9.81. The cow would land at a distance of about 260 m. The impact energy would be 523.600 J. Equals 114 g TNT. What's the crater size? Or will the cow being torn apart during acceleration?

Man, I WON'T get ANY SLEEP without knowing that

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I just want to know... how much damage that that cow deal?

 

[hong]

And if the cow had 10 levels of fighter or barbarian, it could get up and walk away!

 

[Jeremy]

MOoOoOOOOOOOOO!!!?! <------ Conan the Cow Barbarian

 

[Tetsubo]

I have to say, if a cow or a PC gets chucked by a catapult they are meat. I don't care what level they are.